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New to eGPUs!


awittyusername

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Evening all,

 

Completely new to the concept of using an eGPU with my laptop so really looking for some help and insight from the community. I got an ad suggestion a couple nights ago for an EXP GDC Beast from Gearbest and as I had greased my wallet hinges with a few drinks, a few clicks and it was purchased - without having done a shred of research! So now I'm in the position of being committed and having done some reading I've come up with more questions than I have answers. I should probably start by linking the eGPU dock since I've no idea what revision it is: http://www.gearbest.com/laptop-accessories/pp_229101.html - can anyone let me know what I have actually ordered???

 

Secondly I should detail my laptop: Toshiba Satellite L755D-12L (PSK32E-01M006EN). I have upgraded the CPU to an AMD A8-3500M (Llano) which brought with it the GPU AMD Radeon HD 6620G and I have installed 2x 4Gb Kingston HyperX DDR3-1600 RAM modules and also a 128Gb Drevo X1 Pro SSD and a Seagate 750Gb 7200rpm HDD in the ODD bay and it is now running Windows 10 x64 - everything else is standard as per online specs.

 

I have dug down into the laptop using a variety of programs - CPUZ, HWInfo etc. and also identified that the one mPCI-e slot currently used for the WLAN card is v1.1 x1 - I understand that this might be relevant!

 

So my questions for starters are; is this even possible with my laptop before I start to shell out for a graphics card and PSU? What kind of graphics card should I be looking for, NVidia, AMD, since my entire laptop is AMD based? What kind of external PSU should I purchase - can this be done with a good laptop PSU and the card be powered through the EXP GDC or do I need a traditional desktop PSU? Can I purchase a card for ~£70 ($85) that will give me a decent improvement over the current onboard graphics (which are pretty good for a 5 year old laptop!)? Are there any other questions I should be asking that I haven't already?

 

Many, many thanks for your time!

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Hello there, I suggest that you choose the best graphics card from AMD or Nvidia. Exp gdc offer recommend graphics card for you. If you choose AMD, you must use your egpu by external display. On the others hand, nvidia support to use internal or/and external display. PSU is one of part to supply your graphics card, don't forget that exp gdc allow 220W for supply from your pcie. If you need more power just plug 6 pin to your graphics card from PSU. 500W is still good enough.

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

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I have not looked at the list of approved graphics cards for the EXP GDC, I was not even aware such a thing existed, I'll look into that when I finish work. Just to be clear though, will there be no conflict between using an all AMD laptop and an NVidia graphics card if I chose to use one of their products? I also did not realise that the EXP GDC could supply 220W through the PCIe lane, the description on the Gearbest site was pretty thin on specs. Also, will there be a limit on performance due to the CPU in my laptop meaning the best card I can afford may be pointless and a waste of money - is there a 'sweet spot' so to speak in striking a balance between what my laptop's hardware can make use of, the performance of the eGPU and price?

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Like a clown, without doing any research (again!) I've gone and bought an Sapphire Radeon HD7950 - before reading on here that AMD cards can cause headaches and are generally offer less performance in an eGPU format. I thought the only difference between the brands was use of the internal display (which I wasn't bothered about) and when I saw that the AMD card offered more bandwidth than the similarly priced GTX 660Ti I pulled the trigger - thinking bandwidth problems were my enemy over mPCIe 1.1 x1. But I guess I have to make the most of what I got now so will have to see how it goes :logik:

 

Also, can not find a single example of somebody using a Toshiba Satellite of any variant in the implementation guides or work in progress areas - so not holding my breath that this is going to be an ideal candidate for use with an eGPU. Boo.

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Well more digging has revealed on the Banggood page for the EXP GDC Beast V8.x that Toshiba L700 series laptops have been compatible so that has left me with a somewhat more positive vibe about the whole deal now. With my new-found confidence I began searching for a budget PSU that wouldn't need any bodging and would comfortably accommodate the power requirements of the Beast and the HD7950 so dropped £30 (~$40) on an ACE Artic Blue 750W ATX PSU - by no means top end but with 2 6pin PCIe connectors rated at 12V 32A for the HD7950 and a 20+4pin rated the same for Beast, I'm happy that I shouldn't need to do any modifications and I'm much happier with a legit entry level PSU over a potentially dodgy 220W 'Dell'. I still have a concern over my choice of GPU card but time will tell if I've made a mistake or not. If it bombs then I can always sell it on and go with the crowd and get an NVidia GTXxxx. I really do hope though that what swings most people toward NVidia is that they want to make use of the ability to run the internal display - which I neither want to nor can do (not Sandybridge CPU)... Time will tell.

 

Feel like I'm talking to myself :logik: poor me! Lol

Edited by awittyusername
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Actually, I confuse to reply your post. But let me give you some suggestion.

Yeah, you have bought old graphics card that depend on your budget. I think it is still capable to play game created a few years ago. Although amd bring high bandwith, don't forget to check your Gen1 or Gen2 egpu performance. Everyone said that the performance is same but I think it is depend on your configuration such as ram, cpu, and hardisk.  

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Literally this was plug and play, or at least the way I did it, it was. Don't think I did anything special though. Will make a full write up in the implementation section soon since there was nothing for this model.

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